1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement in a speed change gear of a fishing reel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fishing reels for changing a line take-up speed to high or low speed by switching high and low speed driving gears of a handle shaft and a pinion of a sppol shaft engaging with these driving gears in accordance with a take-up load of a fishing line include an automatic speed change system disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5238/1963 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 207168/1986 and a manual speed change system disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 182779/1985.
Although the conventional automatic speed change system described above may seem convenient, it involves the drawback that the line take-up speed cannot be changed freely to a high or low speed according to various fishing conditions or as desired by an angler irrespective of the take-up load because the automatic speed change is attained by the relationship between a drag set force and the tension of the fishing line. Furthermore, this system is not free from a drawback that since a high speed gear and a low speed gear receive frictional resistance and rotate idly when the speed is changed from high speed to low speed or vice versa, take-up efficiency drops that much.
The manual speed change system can change the speed to high or low speed as desired by the angler and can take up the fishing line. In accordance with the conventional system, however, a high speed driving gear or a low speed driving gear on a handle shaft is slide by a cam and engaged with a high speed pinion or with a low speed pinion on the spool shaft to change the speed. Therefore, whenever the switching is made, a gear that has been separated comes to engage with the pinion. This results in the problems that switching and engaging operation cannot be made smoothly under a load state, a gear surface is likely to be damaged or worn out and the mechanism grows in size.